Tonight’s Ring of Honor on HonorClub has a mix of different stars competing as the slow road to April’s Supercard of Honor continues.
ROH Women’s TV Champion Red Velvet will be in Proving Ground action against Angelica Risk. If Risk can win or go to a draw, she earns a future title shot.
The Beast Mortos will take on Tony Nese while former GCW Champion Blake Christian will look to keep his recent win streak going.
After making her Stardom debut, ROH Women’s World Champion Athena will give an update on her world tour.
Former Ring of Honor Pure Champion Katsuyori Shibata will be in action after unsuccessfully challenging AEW TNT Champion Daniel Garcia last Saturday.
Dark Order’s Alex Reynolds and Evil Uno will team with Boulder and Serpentico against Shane Taylor, ROH Pure Champion Lee Moriarty, EJ Nduka and Lee Johnson.
The Outrunners will compete ahead of their inclusion in a 12-man tag team match on Saturday’s AEW Collision.
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Here we go! This is the penultimate episode of ROH on Honorclub before #100 next week, and the card is stacked with some very big people who like hurting other people in very big ways!
But first, QT Marshall. Marshall beat Komander in a Proving Ground match last week and the Board of Directors decided that for Episode 100, Marshall will be taking his shot! Next week!
Eight Man Tag Team Match: Katsuyori Shibata, Komander & The Outrunners (Truth Magnum & Turbo Floyd) defeat Colby Carter, Rosario Grillo & The Stew Crew (Dylan Stewart & Zach Stewart)
When it was announced that Shibata and the Outrunners would be in action this week, it was not mentioned that it was in a match this big! Shibata, Komander and the Outrunners all going to be getting a workout against Carter, Grillo and (sigh) The Stew Crew. Terrible name for two decent workers.
Anyway, the match started with several feeling out processes. Komander toyed with Dylan for a while before isolating him and tagging in Floyd. Floyd and Dylan matched up better size wise, so tey began slobbering the knocker and punching and chopping each other before Magnum tagged in for a double atomic drop and some posing. Carter tried to help, but fell victim to an atomic drop as well.
At this point I should mention that the announce team did not seem to know which Stewart was which, so whoever was in the ring was referred to as “one half of the Stew Crew.” So, one half of the Stew Crew isolated Magnum away from his team and Carter locked in a sleeper. Carter was actually really impressive in this match, I hope we see more of him.
Grillo on the other hand, made the mistake of teasing Floyd on the outside, enraging the Outrunner who tagged in to teach him a lesson in powerslams. The other members of Grillos team tried to help, but they all recieved big body spam, er, slams as well.
Finally, Shibata was tagged in to show Grillo why they call him The Wrestler (spoiler alert: It’s because he’s a wrestler). Shibata knocked Grillo into the corner and Komander hit a big 450 splash on him. Shibata, still the legal man, rolled up Grillo and got the win for his team.
-A Shane Taylor promo aired next. Taylor rand down how he’s fought for his life all his life and it wasn’t over until someone quit. This is the Shane Taylor Era in wrestling and they are damn sure going to fight all comers.
The Beast Mortos defeated Tony Nese (w/Ariya Daivari, Josh Woods & Mark Sterling)
The Beast Mortos against Tony Nese means a whole lot of muscle in the ring. Neither of these guys have been seen recently on ROH. Mortos has been causing chaos on Collision and Dynamite since August when he lost to then ROH World Champion Mark Brisco. Nese was out for a while enjoying newfound fatherhood and his last singles match was on the very same taping. These guys both enjoy hitting people very hard, so this should please Shane Taylor and be a fight.
Sterling came down to the ring yapping his usual yap, pushing the Premier Athletes shirt and trying to get the crowd to say the Athletes rule. The crowd missed the memo though and shouted “suck” instead of rule. Mortos entered growling like the beast he is.
Mortos was riled up off the top, stamping his feet in the corner and wasting no time in locking up with Nese. Mortos started throwing potatoes which left Nese a little confused as he’s used to a more technical style. He lowered himself to throwing a boot to the gut though. Mortos bounced back though, no selling a bunch of shoulder blocks from the ropes.
Nese changed his tactics and tried to take out Mortos’ legs. It did not work. Nese went to the top rope and tried a splash, but Mortos kinda caught him and Nese ended up on the mat. Mortos used that to his advantage and delivered some powerslams. Mortos went up top, but Nese was pulled out of the ring by his teammates on the outside. So Mortos changed direction and jumped from the top turnbuckle onto the whole group.
Mortos then began stalking Sterling on the outside, but Nese interrupted so Mortos turned his aggression to him. Mortos sent Nese into the steel steps and Woods stepped up. He was a little aafraid to engage Mortos though, so Mortos tossed Nese back in the ring. Nese slipped back out and Woods caused a distraction so Nese could hit Mortos with a superkick.
Back in the ring, Nese tried chopping Mortos, which is kinda like feeding a gremlin after midnight. Mortos only got madder and tried to hit Nese on the ropes, but Nese pulled it down and Mortos missed and ended up on the outside. Nese distracted the ref while Woods, Sterling and Daivari laid into Mortos.
Nese then pulled Mortos back into the ring and laid in a sleeper. I don’t think Beasts sleep, so it didn’t work. Nese went for a triangle moonsault, but missed. Mortos took advantage and delivered three straight backbreakers to Nese. A massive headbutt dazed Nese as Woods tried to grab Mortos’ ankle from the outside. The ref caught it this time and ejected Woods from ringside.
Mortos hit a terrifying modified spiked pile driver and mercifully Nese stayed down for the three count.
-MxM Collective joined us next from backstage. They congratulated the ROH Tag Team Champions the Sons of Texas on their title defense in the Tokyodome. MxM believe that they are next in line for a shot at the titles and they are deathly serious about it. They then stared deep into my soul as the segment ended. I need a shower.
Blake Christian defeated Parker Li
Christian has been rapidly rising in the ranks of ROH (boy that’s a lot of R’s) recently (one more!), having been in the Six Man Survival of The Fittest match at Final Battle for the ROH TV Title, and picking up wins over AR Fox and Aaron Solo respectively. Li, sadly, has not been out managing Elvis and has instead been making a name on the indies. This is Li’s second ROH match and his first solo outing.
The crowd chanted for hometown hero Li, which just annoyed Christian. The word of the day in this match was SPEED. These two flew around the ring off the top with Christian getting the better of Li, who thought it would be a good idea to tease Christian. Christian responded by throwing him out of the ring and diving through the ropes.
Back inthe ring, Christian hit a springboard clothesline off the top rope and posed. He seems to have really embraced posing. Christian put Li in a headlock and dragged him to the mat. Li fought out, but left himself open for the extremely technical kick to the face. And more posing.
Li managed to get some offense in, matching Christian’s agility, but the resurgence was short lived as Christian set him up on the ropes and hit a big knee to the back of Li’s head. Christian dragged him to the middle of the ring and pinned him for the win to get his third victory in a row.
-Footage was shown next of ROH Womens Champion Athena’s latest match in Stardom over in Japan. She won, of course and told the Japanese fans that she has always wanted to wrestle for them and it’s a dream come true.
ROH Women’s World Television Title Proving Ground Match: Red Velvet (c) defeated Angelica Risk
ROH is the only place to find Proving Ground matches and I absolutely love them. For the uninitiated, a Proving Ground match has a ten minute time limit. If the challenger can last that long, or pin or submit the Champion in question, they earn a shot at said champion’s title at a future date. Most recently, QT Marshall won a Proving Ground match to earn a shot at the ROH TV Title currently held by Komander. As previously mentioned, we will see that next week on the 100th Episode of ROH on Honorclub.
For tonight though, Red Velvet looks to extend her Proving Ground streak to 4-0 since capturing the Women’s TV Title. Risk for her part, is 0-7 in ROH matches since April 2023, including two Proving Ground losses.
The two women got in each other’s faces before Velvet’s music had even finished paying. Risk was shorter than Velvet, but definitely had a strength advantage over the Champ. They jawed at each other, both very good at trash talking.
Angelica had Velvet’s number off the top with a series of armdrags and a cross body. She laid in some punches on Velvet, talking smack the whole time. Risk choked Velvet out on the ropes and sent her to the outside. She tried a baseball slide, but Velvet saw it coming and wrapped her up in the ring apron, leaving Risk prone to some big punches.
The two traded blows on the outside until Velvet drove Risk’s head into the ring apron (the hardest part of the ring). A double knee shot to the back dazed Risk and Velvet turned up the juice, laying in some hard shots and sending Risk into the turnbuckle. Velvet put a high chinlock on Risk, grinding her face with her wrists. Risk fought out of it and laid Velvet out with a series of clotheslines.
Risk hit a 619 on Velvet, but only got a two count. The time of the match was about 6 minutes at this point. Velvet raked Risk’s eyes and loaded up the left hand for a big knockout punch. Velvet pinned Risk and got a three count, keeping Risk winless in ROH.
ROH Classic Match: Mark Briscoe vs Slim J (ROH on Honorclub, Episode 1, 25.02.2023)
To celebrate next week’s 100th Episode of ROH on Honorclub, this week’s Classic Content goes all the way back to ROH on Honorclub episode 1! Briscoe took on Slim J in the main event and as you can imagine, it was a pretty fun match!
Eight Man Tag Team Match: LEEJ (EJ Nduka & Lee Johnson) & Shane Taylor Promotions (Lee Moriarty & Shane Taylor) defeated Boulder, Serpentico & The Dark Order (Alex Reynolds & Evil Uno)
Pop quiz: How do you make a massive human like EJ Nduka even more terrifying? Answer: Team him up with a similarly large man named Shane Taylor. STP is the dominant faction in ROH right now and Taylor has been masterful at elevating both the Infantry and Trish Adora and utilizing Pure Champion Lee Moriarty to build an empire. Even if it’s just one one match, adding Nduka and Johnson to the fray is a substantial increase in power.
The Dark Order has been stalling of late. There was some silliness with the Grizzled Young Veterans and their scarves, but that seems to have fizzled out. Serpentico is always cool and ready to go with the flow and Boulder… well, I’m sure he will rub someone’s face in his chest or something. There is no storyline or advertised reason for this match and to a casual viewer, that doesn’t give it a lot of stakes. This is one of the things that Tony Khan needs to fix about ROH if he hopes to land the promotion a TV deal.
To start things off, The infantry threw Reynold’s jacket on the ground, the ULTIMATE sign of disrespect. So, Reynolds started off against Moriarty which was great because they set a high tempo and fast pace. Moriarty, who I just noticed wrestles in a singlet with the straps pulled down, was able to get a bunch of nearfalls on Reynolds but he kept popping back up.
Johnson was tagged in to face off against Evil Uno. Uno tried to be nice with a code of honor but Johnson kicked him in the stomach instead. Uno hit an Atomic drop and sent Johnson into the corner. Reynolds tagged in and they double teamed him. Serpentico tagged in and Reynolds held Johnson so Serpentico could hit a double stomp from the top rope.
Serpentico was pulled to the outside by Nduka who threw the smaller man into the barricade a few times before tossing him back in the ring. Nduka tagged in for a sidewalk slam and dragged Serpentico to the STP corner. Taylor snuck in a quick shot to the head and Nduka tagged him in. Serpentico fought for his life, but Taylor easliy dispatched him with a huge slam and leg drop. Johnson tagged back in and put Serpentico in a head lock.
Taylor sent the Infantry over to take out Uno and Reynolds just as Boulder tagged in to face Johnson. Moriarty tried to help, but Boulder stacked them in the corner and hit a big splash. Boulder hoisted both men onto his shoulders and hit a samoan drop/fallaway slam combo. That brought in Taylor to face off against Boulder.
Taylor charged Boulder who actually caught him in midair! Boulder slammed Taylor, but it only got a two. Moriarty tagged in to face Reynolds and locked in a Border City Stretch. Reynolds reversed it and that brought in Nduka to levelled Reynolds with a shoulder. Uno Dropkicked Nduka out of the ring, then Taylor knocked Uno out, then Boulder and Taylor hossed it up in a spectacular display of beef.
Serpentico and Johnson hit duelling frog splashes on the bigger wrestlers and I guess(?) they became the legal men? The ref tried valiantly to sort out all the flying bodies, but it was hard to figure out. Serpentico and Moriarty found themselves in the ring and legal, so Moriarty locked in a Border City Stretch and made the Luchadore tap out.
And that was it! 99 down, one more to go!
